The Church of the Divine Dipsomaniac
By Brent P. W.C. Fields, the great comic actor of the 1920s and 30s, was both an unapologetic alcoholic and atheist. Near the end of his life in 1946, when he was confined to...
Tagged: God
God and Diet Pills
By Steve B. I have come to believe that God is to sobriety what diet pills are to weight loss. The diet pills I’m referring to are the over the counter supplements you see...
A Lesson for AA from our Betters
By Frank M. “You’ve got a higher power problem,” my old AA sponsor told me. It’s something he’d asserted on a number of occasions when the subject of God and the Steps and my...
Is the AA Program a Procrustean Bed?
Procrustes: a mythical host who stretched or cut his guests to fit his “magical” bed, often killing them in the process. By Frank M. I should probably start by explaining that I have no...
The Bird In Your Hands
By Ivan K. A salesman was traveling from Toronto to London and got lost. He stopped at a farmer’s place to ask directions, and this is the conversation between the two of them: Salesman,...
Finding Our Way
An agnostic discovers his place in the Fellowship By Jerry S. Austin, Texas Copyright © The AA Grapevine. Published in October 2012. Reprinted with permission. After being in and around the AA program for more than...
Atheist
The AA Grapevine published this article by J. L. of Oakland, California, which it called Atheist, in its January 1980 issue. At the time J. L. was eight years sober. When J. L. reached 16 years of...
Is There Room Enough in AA?
By J. L. from Oakland, California. Published in the AA Grapevine in October 1987. Copyright © AA Grapevine; reprinted with permission. Recently my twenty-eight-year-old son began to recognize his growing problem with alcohol (an episode with...
An Atheist’s Guide to 12-Step Recovery
by Frank M. You’re a thoughtful and well considered atheist. And you’ve noticed recently that you might be dying from the crap you put in your body. A little. Maybe that’s just the hangover...
God As We Understood Him
WARNING: The following essay, although sincerely and thoughtfully written, is very offensive to Scientologists, smokers, Christians, spirituality, and especially to Zeus. To history’s other 2,000 + Gods, past and present – I have offended...
The Willow Tree Bark
By Frank M. What follows are the reflections of an agnostic in LA on how the program of AA works. The reflections first address the orthodox theory of the program, which requires a belief...
Another Agnostic Group Ousted
By Roger C. In the rooms of AA – A third agnostic AA group has been expelled by Intergroup in Toronto. On April 24, Widening Our Gateway, which had been a member of the Greater Toronto...
Jim Burwell
By Linda R. Jim Burwell’s contribution to Alcoholics Anonymous is truly significant and second only to that of AA’s two co-founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith. Jim is credited with adoption of A.A.’s Third...
Heathens, Spies, Websites, Water-boarding & Carrot Cake
By Bob K. Chapter 4 of the Big Book, We Agnostics, is less than satisfying for many non-believers. Six months ago I went undercover so that I might investigate these devious agnostic creatures. It...
